


he was our captain

by knightfelix (Taeyn)



Series: Fictif Last Legacy: x Reader oneshots [12]
Category: Last Legacy (Visual Novel), The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Injury, Multi, Whump, antagonist/reader team-up, gender neutral reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25330522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taeyn/pseuds/knightfelix
Summary: Rime's delicate features distort into a vicious leer as he draws you close to him, your feet nearly lifted from the ground as you can make out every smooth, dappled freckle across his cheeks.-You need to team up with Rime to save Felix.
Relationships: Felix Iskandar Escellun/Reader, Rime/Reader
Series: Fictif Last Legacy: x Reader oneshots [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657315
Comments: 3
Kudos: 64





	he was our captain

**Author's Note:**

> (or, you see how much this necromancer loves you (and you love him just as much). This fic continues directly on from your confrontation with Rime <3)
> 
> tw: mentions of fantasy-injuries

The room crackles with a dark, unfettered energy as Rime presses the blade against your throat, his face wrought into an expression of triumphant disgust. His opposite hand winds gently into the front of your tunic, his grip deceptively casual, all the while his magic wraps around your limbs and forces you to be still.

 _Rime?_ This _is Rime?_ Your eyes wildly search the room, you're clinging to the hope that Felix resurfaced safely in his own body. Your greatest wish is suddenly that Felix never has to see what his former captain has become.

Rime's eyes sparkle with a fierce, manic energy, his lips curling into an exultant smile as the edge of the dagger licks your skin. You claw your fingers uselessly at your sides, stretching for your magic, your unfamiliar ally in this world. But all you can feel is a weak, sputtering echo, the flicker of a candle in a while-hot blaze.

 _I didn't drag myself through a dozen hells..._ Rime's words swim through your consciousness, raw loathing twisting into unfathomable hurt. He's staring at you with a sort of hateful reverence, savouring this moment where he'll finally reclaim his hope.

If Rime died five years ago, had he suffered in relentless agony ever since? From what little you know, Rime was someone your friends looked up to, someone they'd turn to if things went wrong...

As if by proximity he can sense your thoughts, Rime's delicate features distort into a vicious leer as he draws you close to him, your feet nearly lifted from the ground as you can make out every smooth, dappled freckle across his cheeks. He looks both serene and terrifying.

"Wasn't it I who once warned you..." Rime says softly, almost liltingly, while his gaze sears unblinking into your eyes. "That the unseen knife slices deepest?"

You make a desperate, strangled sound as Rime leans in, his eyes wide and wet above his lower lashes. His lips carefully part as he exhales, an unspoken question of _why_ his relic was called to you, his features shadowing as his breath skips across your cheek.

And then, as if he's seen something you'll never possibly understand, Rime releases you, a bright, anguished joy in his smile and his blade singing in a wide arc through the air. His venom ignites something unbidden in you and you refuse to look away, expecting to feel the bite of pain.

The sensation that hits you instead feels like a crack of thunder, the air in the room seeming to split apart and mesh together at once, a deep, biting cold and a sudden black hollow at the wall. You're jerked violently backward as if swept through a storm, but Rime merely looks faintly excited, he tilts his head at the shadows spilling out from the newly-opened portal. You've never seen magic that looks so unstable. The room has darkened and you feel like you're breathing shards of ice, your whole body is shaking as Felix steps out from the undulating void.

Felix turns to you, the whole of his eyes black as ink, his jaw gritted with emotion. Your heart seizes in your chest as just for a split-second, you could almost forget that he's on your side.

And then he raises his hands, stepping in front of you to protect you with an expression that nearly rips out your heart. He looks like an incarnation of the afterworld, the unhallowed form of demons or death itself.

He looks like a highborn mage who loves you.

He looks like your best friend who needs you more than he'll ever let show.

And you realise with horror what he's about to do, what you _can't_ let him do, not before realising who he's truly facing.

Felix's stare travels right through Rime, because the only person Rime is tied to in this world is _you_. The Astrolabe resides in your heart, you're the only one who can see him.

And while Rime may have underestimated Felix, you haven't.

 _"Felix, stop!"_ you shout. You leap to your feet, throwing your arms around his chest as you try to drag him back toward the writhing portal, tendrils of black now whipping from its edges. But Felix doesn't miss the terror in your voice, and the necromancer has infinite more experience with incorporeal beings than you.

"Stop!" you scream, "it's-"

But Felix's hands are already tracing a sigil in the air, the room darkening as every particle of light seems sucked toward Felix's fingers. With a final, relentless gesture, Felix releases his invocation, a tangled welt of lightning that streaks toward Rime's chest.

You catch the small, almost surprised expression on Rime's face, before the magic sends him reeling backwards, he trips over his own legs and curses ungracefully as he tumbles into the bookshelves.

"Felix!" you yell incoherently as Felix goes down too, the spell seems to have gutted whatever energy he had left, his body already weakened by poison. Rime sounds like he's in enough pain that he's being sick, but Felix starts trembling on the floor, the unstable portal slowly beginning to collapse in on itself.

"I've got you! I've got you," your hands are feverishly clasping at Felix's shirt. But you don't, even with your power returned, every time you reach for Felix's lifeforce it seems to twist away, intangible as threads of smoke and fading fast. He's damaged himself too badly, everything that's left of his spirit seems to be slipping, bleeding out of him like some horrible, intangible pool. Your nails are digging so deeply into Felix's shoulders that you fear you'll draw blood. But you're not near experienced enough, you're pouring all your magic into him and it's dispersing just as fast.

He's stepped too deep into the void, and the void holds on to nothing and no one.

Then Felix _stops_ shuddering, and for a moment you can't breathe. You're suffocating as you no longer have control of your power, you can feel yourself draining but nothing on this earth will make you pull away. Maybe if you go far enough you can reach him.

Maybe you can tell him... that you don't think he's ridiculous, or not tall enough, that you never thought him self-absorbed. If he dedicated the last five years to never giving up on someone, then he's the most selfless person you know.

Vaguely, you can hear a sound, swiftly echoing footsteps behind you. Then far less vaguely, you feel a blinding pain explode in the middle of your chest, as if someone was reaching through your heart with a hand of ice, wrenching you back to your knees. A surge of white hot power alights every sense in your body, as if every sound or breath was a living being, heat and cold bursting over your skin.

"Don't give up!" a voice snarls sharply, and with searing clarity, you realise that this is _Rime's_ power. He can't touch Felix but he can touch _you_ , and now he's lending you the whole of his strength in order to save him. The force of it is nauseating, his ability overwhelming you and the broken seams of Felix's body no more than ideas to be tied together.

 _...to think the Astrolabe would choose another healer..._ Felix once told you.

 _...Rime was the best of us..._ Anisa's voice now.

 _...the first to earn a Relic..._ you hear Sage's fond laugh.

You feel Rime's other hand at your shoulder, keeping you steady. Bringing you back.

Felix's chest rises off the ground as his spine arches unnaturally, the darkness clearing from his eyes as he starts choking and gasping for air.

Rime gently removes his hand from your back as you whip around to face him. You see he's struggling to draw each breath too, his inhale a ragged, guttural sound and his strawberry hair plastered to his face with sweat.

Rime looks into your eyes and you see bitter sorrow, something there so haunted that you can't look away. You see a captain who'd never stop believing in you, a teammate who'd take the worst jobs when you were a member down, the last medic to leave sick bay of an evening. The Astrolabe tugs within you as Rime gives an involuntary sob, his expression once again seizing into something hungry and sublime.

Rime raises his hand, but instead of the blow you're expecting, he aims a bolt of energy toward the last sputter of Felix's portal, opening it wide and spinning. With everything he has left, Rime seizes you with one hand and Felix with the other, throwing you both inside the portal.

The last thing you see as the portal closes is Rime laughing viciously, tears streaming down his face as he collapses to his hands and knees, his anger ghastly and his despair wrung taut.

 _And as the sun alights from its lofty zenith..._ the fortune Rime once shared with you echoes in your memory. _...the sea and streets shall run red as the sky above._

-

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much to everyone who has been reading these, it's honestly the most fun ever reading your reactions or seeing a kudo, it makes my whole day!! :_))
> 
> I have a Wattpad account too, so if anyone uses Wattpad or wants to find me there, my username is ‘knightfelix’ and you can find me below! I follow everyone back!! c:
> 
> <https://www.wattpad.com/user/knightfelix>


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